One. Gifts of the Gods: The Origins of Civilization in Ancient Near Eastern and Greek Mythology

2011 ◽  
pp. 10-28
Keyword(s):  
Greek Mythology ◽  
Near Eastern

Gifts of the Gods: The Origins of Civilization in Ancient Near Eastern and Greek Mythology

2011 ◽  
Author(s):  
William F. McCants
Keyword(s):  
Near East ◽  
Greek Mythology ◽  
Near Eastern ◽  
Arts And Sciences ◽  
The Arts ◽  
The Subject ◽  
Ex Nihilo

In order to see how the Greek, Roman, and Arab conquests of the Near East shaped the conqueror's and conquered's understanding of the origins of civilization, this chapter surveys the region's ancient mythologies before the conquests: Mesopotamian, Iranian, Egyptian, Greek, and Hebrew (the surviving Hurrian, Hittite, and Canaanite texts do not treat the subject). In Mesopotamian, Iranian, and Egyptian myths, gods create civilization ex nihilo and gave it to humans, sometimes through special human or semihuman interlocutors. The arts and sciences they create are almost always beneficial, and their point of origin is usually associated with cities, not with peoples. The genres of texts surveyed are also heterogeneous because of the ways that culture myths from the different ancient societies survived.

The Cilician God Sandas and the Greek Chimaera: Features of Near Eastern and Greek Mythology Concerning the Plague

2007 ◽  
Vol 7 (2) ◽  
pp. 197-217
Author(s):  
Attilio Mastrocinque
Keyword(s):  
Female Partner ◽  
Original Form ◽  
Greek Mythology ◽  
Archaeological Evidence ◽  
Near Eastern

AbstractA gem in the Museum of Castelvecchio (Verona) depicts the god Sandas of Tarsos with his terrible animal: the lion-goat. On the reverse side there is the inscription YOYO. The epigraphical and archaeological evidence from Anatolia, from Hittite to Hellenistic times, proves that Sandas was a underworld god protecting tombs and sending pestilences when angry. He was appeased by offerings to his terrible ministers, who were usually seven. Similarly Nergal or Erra (similar to Sandas) in Mesopotamia, and Sekhmet in Egypt had seven animal-headed terrible ministers, who were able to bring pestilences and death. A Hittite inscription mentions Yaya as Sandas' female partner. Her name is very similar to the Yoyo on the Verona gem. Sandas was identified with Heracles because of his relations with the underworld realms and his warlike features. The lion-goat of Tarsus was the model of Greek Chimaera. In fact the myth of Bellerophon took its place in Lycia and Cilicia. In Hellenistic age the original form of this monster was better known and therefore we find its typical features in Hellenistic and Roman sculptures and reliefs.

Heracles and epilepsy: the sacred disease

2020 ◽  
Vol 78 (10) ◽  
pp. 660-662
Author(s):  
Eduardo ORREGO-GONZÁLEZ ◽  
Ana PERALTA-GARCÍA ◽  
Leonardo PALACIOS-SÁNCHEZ
Keyword(s):  
Current Knowledge ◽  
Greek Mythology ◽  
Corpus Hippocraticum ◽  
Ancient Times ◽  
The Many

ABSTRACT Epilepsy is one of the most dreaded and terrifying human afflictions. One of the many names it has received was Sacred Disease, during Greek times. Heracles served as a source of the divine connotation that epilepsy received in ancient times, as he was one of the most important demigods in Greek mythology. However, several authors have attributed Heracles’ actions to a seizure, including Hippocrates, who described the sacred disease on his “Corpus Hippocraticum.” This paper reviewed some of the publications on the myth and content of the text of Hippocrates, in relation to the current knowledge of the disease.

Did David Murder Saul's Successors in 2 Samuel 21:1-14 and Does It Matter?

2019 ◽  
Vol 27 (2) ◽  
Author(s):  
Alice Deken
Keyword(s):  
Near Eastern ◽  
The Law ◽  
2 Samuel

A semantic reading of this text alters the structure of the episode as a whole to reveal a story-within-a-story: the death of the seven Saulides and the expiation performed by Rizpah. The purpose of this sub-plot is to point to the perpetrator of the initial crime causing a famine, by presenting an analogous circumstance. By analogy we are directed to the conclusion that David is responsible for the famine after engineering the deaths of Saul and Jonathan. David’s exploitation of the differences between Ancient Near Eastern and Israelite law resulting in seven dead claimants to the throne of Israel, suggests that the episode has been compiled as a rejection of kingship; the centralization of worship, and the promulgation of the law-code. Fundamental to all these, is the rejection of the popular sovereign practice of murdering any potential successors to the throne.

Text Prophetism

2017 ◽  
Vol 7 (1) ◽  
pp. 40
Author(s):  
Elvira Lumi ◽  
Lediona Lumi
Keyword(s):  
Key Words ◽  
Literary Texts ◽  
Modern World ◽  
Greek Mythology ◽  
Divine Inspiration ◽  
Religious Doctrine ◽  
The World ◽  
Poetic Text ◽  
Poetic Diction ◽  
Life On Earth

"Utterance universalism" as a phrase is unclear, but it is enough to include the term "prophetism". As a metaphysical concept, it refers to a text written with inspiration which confirms visions of a "divine inspiration", "poetic" - "legal", that contains trace, revelation or interpretation of the origin of the creation of the world and life on earth but it warns and prospects their future in the form of a projection, literary paradigm, religious doctrine and law. Prophetic texts reformulate "toll-telling" with messages, ideas, which put forth (lat. "Utters Forth" gr. "Forthteller") hidden facts from fiction and imagination. Prometheus, gr. Prometheus (/ prəmiθprə-mee-mo means "forethought") is a Titan in Greek mythology, best known as the deity in Greek mythology who was the creator of humanity and charity of its largest, who stole fire from the mount Olympus and gave it to the mankind. Prophetic texts derive from a range of artifacts and prophetic elements, as the creative magic or the miracle of literary texts, symbolism, musicality, rhythm, images, poetic rhetoric, valence of meaning of the text, code of poetic diction that refers to either a singer in a trance or a person inspired in delirium, who believes he is sent by his God with a message to tell about events and figures that have existed, or the imaginary ancient and modern world. Text Prophetism is a combination of artifacts and platonic idealism. Key words: text Prophetism, holy text, poetic text, law text, vision, image, figure

Klangteppiche. Transmediale Verhältnisse zwischen Weberei und Musik

2015 ◽  
Vol 6 (1) ◽  
pp. 133-158
Author(s):  
Birgit Schneider
Keyword(s):  
Multiple Relationships ◽  
Greek Mythology ◽  
Creative Potential ◽  
Art Forms ◽  
The Relationship

Ausgehend von der griechischen Mythologie werden die vielfältigen Beziehungen zwischen Singen und Weben, dem Flechttanz und den strukturellen Ähnlichkeiten von Notationsformen und Steuerungsprinzipien in Musik und Weberei ausgelotet. Es zeigt sich, dass das Verhältnis der Zeitkunst Musik und der Raumkunst Weberei weit über das hinausweist, was sich im bloß metaphorischen Sprechen von >Klanggeweben< abzeichnet. Die Beziehung zwischen Kunstformen und Medien bringt vielmehr mythischspirituelle Ebenen zum Ausdruck. Die Umwandlung von Geweben in Musik respektive Musik in Weberei wiederum macht das kreative Potential der Transposition fruchtbar. </br></br>Based on Greek mythology, the multiple relationships between singing and weaving, »Flechttanz« (»weaving dance«) and the structural similarities of forms of notation and principles of control in music and weaving are explored. It is found that the relationship between music (as a temporal art) and weaving (as a spatial art) goes far beyond that which the metaphor of »sound tissues« points at. Rather, the relationship between art forms and media expresses mythical and spiritual levels. The transformation of tissues in music or, respectively, music in tissues, makes the creative potential of transposition productive.

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